Still here, I promise!

I know, I've been a bad blogger. You've all emailed me for updates, wondering when I'd post more here. I know!

Things have been busy around here. Intermediate Cuisine is coming to an end, and I haven't posted a single photo! I've been to Prague and Lisbon and Bruges, and haven't had a second to write about any of those trips; and more trips are coming up! You need to hear about the Thanksgiving I'm cooking at the corner bistro, and the rugby party at that same bistro I cooked for! And I've had some amazing visits from home, with more in a few weeks. Life's a whirlwind here in Paris. But it's fun!

But yes, I'm here; I'm happy; and I'll write more soon. Now I've got to go make bouillabaisse...

The rest of Basic Cuisine - A Photo Montage (Part IV)

Alright, y'all. Time for the down and dirty catch-up blog post. I know, it's been over a month. And certain of you keep nagging me to update my public on life in Paris..... but hey, I've been busy! Living life, cooking food, traveling, and hosting visitors. And you expect me to write??

So yes, here comes the update. (And yes, I was technically supposed to come home a month ago. That's true. But I wasn't done. There was more cooking to learn, more living in Paris to do. So I'm here to finish the diploma, and I get back to the States in late December. Really. I promise.)

The last ten days of basic cuisine ... in a nutshell:

Soupe de moules legerement safranee (lightly saffroned mussel soup), cotes de veau grand-mere (Grandma's veal chops ... not my grandma, but perhaps some French grandma!), and fins sables aux pistaches, fraises a l'italienne (strawberries Italian-style with pistachio biscuits -- one of my favorite desserts of the term). This day I learned that I like veal chops when they're not overcooked (and when they're served with mushrooms, onions, and bacon), and the combination of pistachio, strawberry, basil, whipped cream, and mascarpone is amazing.


Huitres chaudes au muscadet (warm oysters with Muscadet), canette rotie aux navets (roast duckling with turnips), souffle chaud au Cointreau (warm orange and Cointreau souffle). Learned that while I love magret de canard, and Peking duck, plain old roast duck doesn't do it for me. And when Andre Cointreau is the owner of your cooking school, you make Cointreau souffles, rather than Grand Marni(er) souffles. Oh well.



Queues de langoustines grillees aux epices, sauce vierge (grillled langoustines with spices, olive oil sauce), gratin de saumon au cresson (salmon and watercress gratin), saute de boeuf Stroganoff, rix aux legumes (beef Stroganoff, rice with vegetables). As I had learned from Mark earlier in the year, langoustines have a tendency to be mealy, and in order to wind up with a couple of good ones, you have to cook lots of extras. I just don't think they're worth it. Give me a grilled jumbo shrimp over a grilled langoustine any day. (Who's from Louisiana? Geaux Tigers!) But this beef Stroganoff recipe? It's going to become a staple, I loved it! And since I've gotten decent at brunoising vegetables, might as well...


Flan de truite, sauce porto (trout flan with port sauce), medaillons des porc charcutiere, pommes Dauphine (pork medallions in charcutiere sauce, potatoes Dauphine), sabayon aux fruits frais gratines (fresh fruit gratin with sabayon). Apparently, it's not a sauce charcutiere without cornichons, as much as I tried to convince Chef it would be better that way...


Gnocchis au fromage a la Parisienne (Parisian gnocchi. I kid you not. I never knew such a thing existed. And don't tell anyone, but I prefer the Italian kind...), poulet saute a l'estragon, bouquetiere de legumes (sauteed chicken with tarragon, and turned vegetable garnish), pommes meringuees, jus de framboise (apples with meringue, raspberry sauce). So Parisian gnocchi are a mixture of pate a choux (the dough used for eclairs, but unsweetened) and potato, cooked and then placed in a gratin dish with cheese to brown. I'm just not into it. Boiled pastry dough? Blech.


I am, however, getting somewhat better at turning vegetables. Still think it's a silly skill, but turns out practice really does help.

Oeufs brouilles au saumon fume (scrambled eggs with smoked salmon), terrine de poisson chaude, beurre blanc (hot fish terrine with beurre blanc), creme bavaroise a la vanille, sauce cafe (vanilla bavarian cream with coffee sauce). I can't wait to visit my parents, and try out my new scrambled eggs techniques with Dad. His scrambled eggs are the best, but maybe I can give him a tip or two from the French chefs! And, fish terrine is shockingly better than expected.


Filets de daurade poeles au fenouil (sea bream fillets with fennel), pintadeaux de loue au chou (guinea fowl with cabbage), rezules au poires (fried pear-filled puffs). This may have been my favorite fish dish to prepare in basic, despite the fact that I don't love fennel (sorry John). I've become decent at fileting daurade, julienning fennel isn't the worst thing in the world, and the dish plates nicely. I found myself hoping I'd get this dish on the final exam (notice the foreshadowing?) Also, pear desserts are fantastic. I've known this since the days of the pear tart at Cahors in Tokyo, and it is still true.



Salade de chevre chaud a la ventreche (warm goat cheese salad with bacon), jambonnette de volaille et son jus au madere, pommes poelees caramelisees (stuffed chicken legs, madeira jus with caramelized apples), mousse au chocolat a l'orange (chocolate and orange mousse). Yum. That's pretty much all there is to say about this day. Oh, except for this -- in order to stuff a chicken leg, you remove the thigh bone, and chop off part of the leg bone, and then push it down so it remains as a handle, but does not extend too far into the meat of the chicken leg, so there's room to put the stuffing. So I did all of this, stuffed the chicken legs, and set off to cook them up. Of course, one of my chicken legs was more artfully stuffed and manchonner-ed than the other, so I had my eye on that one to serve to Chef. But when I picked up the leg to turn in the pan, I had the brilliant idea of picking it up by the bone (to avoid piercing the skin or meat!) -- and pulled the bone clear out of the leg. Apparently I was a little overzealous in my manchonner-ing. But this really was the most beautiful piece, still, so when it came time to plate, I covertly jammed the leg bone back in, and crossed my fingers that Chef wouldn't lift the leg by its bone when he was tasting. (All worked out well.)


Croustade d'escargots aux champignons des bois (snails with wild mushrooms, in a pastry case), pave de sandre, sauce aux herbes, ratatouille (pikeperch steak, herb sauce, ratatouille), magret de canard a l'orange (duck breast in orange sauce). All I'll say is this, thanks to Chef Cotte, I think I've learned the secret to an orange gastrique, and magret a l'orange is definitely on the short list for my first dinner party when I get back to DC.



Carre d'agneau roti persille, legumes printaniers et tomates farcies (rack of lamb with parsley crust, spring vegetables, and stuffed tomatoes), gratin dauphinois (potato gratin), omelette norvegienne (baked Alaska). This is also on the short list for the aforementioned dinner party. Wow. This was our last class in basic, so Chef made enough for us to each have a full meal, and we popped a few bottles of champagne. It was not a bad day.



All that was left was the written exam, and the practical exam (yes, I was nervous; and yes, I got the fennel fish; and yes, it went well). And graduation!


Next post? What we've done so far in intermediate! And travels outside of Paris! And visitors!

The rest of Basic Cuisine - A Photo Montage (Part III)

Writing these blog entries has been a good refresher on all of the recipes we've learned, which was good, since our final exam was coming up! It was yesterday, and it was actually a lot of fun ... but I'll get to that in due time...

After learning the methods for making various kinds of soups, we turned to more traditional French recipes, and, in general, our demos shifted from three dishes demonstrating similar techniques, to full meals (entree, plat, dessert). This demonstrated the timing and multi-tasking necessary for preparing an entire meal in a given time period. (We're not there yet, though ... in practical we generally just prepared the plat, and occasionally the entree!)

So, lesson eighteen: beignets de gambas, sauce tartare (deep-fried jumbo shrimp, tartare sauce) and souffle au fromage (cheese souffle). You'll all be happy to know that my souffle rose beautifully (although Chef Poupard did help me out a little with getting my egg whites to consistency. I have small arm muscles!) I couldn't help think about the souffle scene in Sabrina ("A woman happy in love, she burns the souffle; a woman unhappy in love, she forgets to turn on the oven.") and wonder what this says about my lovelife ... but I digress ...

In demo, chef also made saute de veau Marengo, pommes a l'anglaise (veal Marengo with boiled potatoes), and clafoutis aux fruits de saison (seasonal fruit clafouti). We learned that veal Marengo is so named because it is the dish Napoleon had the night before the Battle of Marengo (only he had it with chicken, because veal wasn't available - I kid you not!) But did he have it with those heart-shaped croutons??


The next day, we made blanquette de veau a l'ancienne, riz pilaf (traditional veal stew, rice pilaf). Not one of my favorites. Not difficult to prepare, but I'm not much of a stew person...

As a starter, chef prepared saumon cru marine a l'aneth (salmon marinated with dill) -- a nice light accompaniment to the heavy stew -- and for dessert, tarte au sucre (sugar tart). So I didn't go hungry!


But, I was happy to move on to our next class, when we made tournedos grilles sauce bearnaise, pommes Pont Neuf (grilled tournedos with sauce Bearnaise, potatoes Pont-Neuf). Potatoes Pont Neuf are so named because, according to legend, they were fried right there on the bridge. Chef suggested we plate them in a bridge formation, to continue the theme.


A few weeks later, I was able to demonstrate my sauce know-how at dinner at Hotel Costes ... after tasting Matthew's bearnaise (and amusing him by wanting to taste the sauce unadulterated by the steak it accompanied!), I subjected him to a discussion of how I'd improve it (it was missing acidity and flavor ... so a better vinegar/wine/shallot reduction). I think he realized at that moment just how much of a food geek I am!



That same day, Chef also demonstrated how to make flamiche (leek tart), and parfait glace au cafe, sauce caramel et cognac (frozen coffee parfait with a caramel and cognac sauce). Our degustations keep getting better and better!

The rest of Basic Cuisine - A Photo Montage (Part II)

Onward and upward. Les poissons, les poissons, how I love les poissons! Fileting a fish is not so easy, although I've definitely gotten better at it over the weeks. My first filets (on day TWO!) were small ... but this is definitely a skill where practice makes, well, maybe not perfect. But better.

We learned how to poach fish in a court-bouillon, making troncons de colin poche, sauce hollandaise (poached hake steaks with hollandaise sauce). (But don't be fooled by how easy that sounds ... we turned THREE different vegetables that day!) We also learned how to braise fish, making filets de barbue duglere (brill filets in white wine sauce). Brill is a flat fish, and is a beast to filet -- there are two filets on each side, and finding precisely where to cut is challenging. Also a challenge for some of my classmates? The sauce! This was the first time we didn't pass our sauce through a chinois before serving (because the sauce is supposed to have the perfectly cut tomatoes, onions, and shallots that have been cooking in it), but a few of my classmates strained their sauces out of habit ... all that hard work in the trash!



Chef also made sole meuniere (pan-fried sole with nut-brown butter), goujonnettes de sole, sauce verte (breaded strips of sole, green sauce), and escalope de saumon a l'oseille (salmon escalope with sorrel). After a couple of weeks of meats, we were all happy to be eating a little lighter! (And yes, I realize that fried fish really can't be called light ... but in comparison to some of the other dishes we've been cooking and preparing, it's downright healthy eating!)



Next up? Soups. Day one was creme dubarry (cream of cauliflower soup), potage cressoniere (watercress soup), bisque d'etrilles (crab bisque). My least favorite of the three was the bisque (Anne and I decided it's because we're used to wonderful Maryland crabs, and this is one thing that the U.S. does better than France!), and unfortunately, that was the one we made in practical. This marked my first experience in cleavering live crabs, and it was actually pretty fun. Except, of course, the fact that when your knife lands in the middle of the still living crab, its claws reflexively move up to cling to the sides of the knife. A little disconcerting. (Sadly, when I excitedly related my crab-cleavering stories to a friend from home, he responded that he has crab-cleavering duties every summer when his family makes crab sauce. There goes my unique and entertaining story!)



The next day, we learned how to make soupe de poisson facon marseillaise (fish soup Marseillaise-style) and soupe a l'oignon gratinee (French onion soup). Fish soup just isn't my thing, but the onion soup was fantastic. (Are those three bowls all for me? Don't I wish!)


Next we learned how to clarify a consomme. I had no idea how fun and rewarding this would be! Maybe it's my science-y brain, but learning how and why egg whites work to clarify bouillon, and then actually making it happen was one of the most satisfying moments I've had here so far. (And it didn't hurt that my brunoise of carrots, daikon, haricots verts, and celery to garnish the finished product was lovely! Hooray for sharp knives and sharpening knife skills!)

More to come ...

The rest of Basic Cuisine - A Photo Montage (Part I)

Yesterday was our last practical class in Basic Cuisine - time has really flown. And I'm realizing I'm weeks behind in showing you all the delicious dishes we've been making. So now, a photo montage, picking up where I left off...

We learned to make forcemeats (stuffings) by making paupiettes de veau bourgeouise (stuffed veal rolls with glazed vegetables) and supremes de volaille farcis, sauce et champignons (stuffed chicken breasts, sauce and mushrooms). Much to my surprise, these were two of my favorite dishes, both to make and to eat! I liked them far more than the additional forcemeat dish Chef Clergue demonstrated, terrine de canard aux pruneaux et l'Armagnac (duck terrine with prunes and Armagnac). Turns out I just don't like Armagnac.


Next was rabbit day. Ah, rabbit day. This was the one animal I was less excited about butchering (and it's the one dish I'm hoping isn't on my practical exam at the end of the week!) Rabbits arrive with their heads (but sans floppy ears, thank goodness), frozen in what appears to be their last hop.

Good times. So after beheading my bunny, removing its entrails, and sectioning it, I wound up with lapin a la moutarde, pommes sautees a cru (rabbit with mustard, sauteed potatoes). A dish I've always enjoyed, but somehow couldn't bear to eat as leftovers that night...


That same day, Chef showed us how to make artichauts poivrade a la Grecque aux legumes printaniers (poivrade artichoke Greek style with spring vegetables) and petits pots de creme vanille, the et caramel (vanilla, tea, and caramel custards). I have to say, I found it a little weird to be prepping whole carrots the same day I was beheading a rabbit ... poor Bugs.

Next installment? Basic techniques for cooking fish and making soups.

Dinner Parties!

Today was a national holiday in France, so Le Cordon Bleu was closed, and my classmates and I decided it was time to have a little dinner party! I spent the morning flipping through the cookbooks I have here, trying to come up with a recipe whose ingredients I could find at the only market open today! I decided on sweet pea gnocchi, despite the fact that I've never made gnocchi before, and certainly not in a Barbie doll-sized kitchen like those we have here in our Paris apartments!

But that idea was feeling a bit flat to me, until I remembered a phenomenal dish I had in the spring at Customshop, in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was a squid ink pasta with chilis, crab, and peas ... but the key to the dish was mint, chopped to a powder, and mixed into the pasta dough. I love the combination of fresh peas and fresh mint, so this seemed like a winning idea to me, if only I could pull it off.

The good news? I pulled off the flavor. The bad? Gnocchi texture is tough to get right, and my first venture into gnocchi-making was, although not entirely unsuccessful (everyone had seconds!), not entirely successful either. But look how pretty and green!

We also enjoyed a lovely tomato, mozzarella, and basil salad with homemade pesto, and butter chicken (courtesy of Amit's secret family recipe)! And ice cream for dessert. One of these days my pastry friends are going to step up and make a delicious dessert for a dinner party ... until then I'll just have to settle for snaring leftovers at school!














*****

This was the second dinner party we threw this week! Monday was our written exam in Basic Cuisine, and a few of us got together Sunday afternoon to study our hundreds of vocabulary terms, and dozens of recipes, sauces, and proportions. (How much roux for a liter of Sauce Supreme? How about for Blanquette de Veau? What's in a bechamel? Bearnaise? Hollandaise? Albufera? Define monder ... detrempe ... abattis.) But what kind of culinary school students would we be if we didn't bring food?!

Anne and I threw together some apero -- bruschetta with tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, and olive oil; asparagus with roasted red peppers and olive oil; and watermelon with feta, basil, and lime juice. Do you detect a theme? (No butter!!) See the excitement on the face of an LCB student when she gets to use olive oil, and not butter!

I was in charge of the chopping (as we were cooking in Anne's kitchen, so I was her sous...), so here I am (LCB hat and all) preparing a tomate concasse.


It wasn't just apero, though ... Alexandra prepared cod Duglere, atop a healthy bed of spinach. What's this? A meal in Paris without a potato to be found? Shocking!

Of course, the whole point of the evening was to study, not just to cook, so here we are, studying...


It wouldn't be studying without a glass of pink bubbly, now would it? I'm pretty sure we all passed, we were just celebrating early!

Visitors, take deux

Oh, how I love having visitors.

This morning, my friends Kristen and Todd arrived, and not a day too soon, as I'd been having a little bit of a low time lately. There was some loneliness, despite a couple of amazing trips (soon, updates on London and Burgundy, I promise!), and I was in real need of some hugs from home. Enter Todd and Kris.

We had the most lovely day! First, their plane landed on time, and all of their luggage arrived with them. I've never heard of such a thing at De Gaulle!! My phone rang when they arrived at their hotel -- "breakfast?", Todd asked. "But of course," I replied. And off we went for their first cafe creme et croissant experience.

Seeing friends from home is such a wonderful thing. As much as I love being here, there are definitely times when I miss being around people who've known me for longer than a few months, people who I laugh and joke so easily around, people who run across Boulevard Saint Germain to give me a hug. And today was a day full of that laughing, joking, running, and hugging.

After breakfast and a couple of peeks at various patisseries in the neighborhood, we set off for a walk along the Seine. My job today was to keep them awake, so they could beat jetlag. So we set off on a march through Paris. Walk along the Seine, through the Tuileries, to the Champ de Mars ... we lunched at la Fontaine de Mars, recommended to me by the Michels at my regular haunt, Bistrot du Coin, in Washington. After a tasty lunch (other than the dessert, a very disappointing peach soup), we wandered off through town, eventually winding up back at Fish la Boissonerie for a drink (where we saw the owner, who we recognized from lunch at la Fontaine de Mars -- sometimes Paris can be so small!); then the original Cosi for another drink; and then a lovely little bistro just off of rue Princesse for dinner (my filet du bar with cumin cream was lovely). A nutella and banana crepe was a perfect ending to the night, and I can't wait til tomorrow!

Ratatouille!

I'm sure you're all on top of this, as it came out in the States a month ago, but if not ...

Go see Ratatouille!

I went to a sneak preview tonight with some LCB classmates (it opens in Paris tomorrow), and we laughed our way through two hours of great entertainment!

I know I loved it more because I live in Paris; and I know I loved it more because I love food and cooking and food criticism ... but it's great! It captures Paris, it captures professional cooking, it captures French chefs ...

I actually can't wait to see it again, and I never see movies more than once!

Who cares what they're wearing, on Main Street or

Anyone know where that comes from? I've always loved it, for obvious reasons, and when I happened by Savile Row yesterday, it brought a (fitting, isn't it, if you know the lyric I'm quoting) smile to my face.


(And no, of course that photo isn't in London. It's at Versailles. But I didn't have a picture of me smiling in London!)

So yes, I'm in London for the weekend. And it's been an interesting 24 hours so far! I have to admit that my first couple of hours here made me realize just how much I love Paris. Strolling around London felt nothing like strolling around Paris, and I was really missing my adopted European home's charm. But I went for a long walk regardless, in an attempt to familiarize myself with the city, and wound up at dinner at Maze, on Jarad's recommendation. Maze is one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants, under Chef Jason Atherton, who completed a stage at El Bulli in Spain. I was expecting it to be good, but probably wouldn't have gone without a trusted recommendation, as I am no Gordon Ramsay devotee (and am generally skeptical of places that are receiving buzz due to popular television shows). Thank goodness I ignored my skepticism.

Because wow. All I can say is wow. I don't have an all-time favorite meal, but if I were making a list of some of my top meals, this one would definitely make the cut.

I settled in at the bar and was greeted by my perfectly friendly and attentive, yet not overbearing, bartender. "Care for an aperitif? A glass of champagne or a cocktail?" Yes, but what to have? I'm not a champagne fan, so thought I'd start with a cocktail, but wasn't really in the mood for my usual gin and tonic. So I asked for a suggestion, and the bartender came up with a Reformed Negroni - Miller's gin (reformed, apparently, because it uses Icelandic water), apricot brandy, Punt e Mes (dry red vermouth), citronge, and orange bitters. It was delicious, and I now know that I like my bitters diluted with gin (unlike a friend who won't drink negronis, because he doesn't like to dilute his gin with bitters!)

I sipped my tasty beverage as I perused the menu, comprised of two pages of small dishes meant to be ordered tapas-style, and another two pages of more traditional appetizer/entree dishes. I opted to order tapas-style, of course, so I could sample as many different dishes as possible, and immediately regretted that I was alone, because it was so difficult to narrow my choices down! After soliciting recommendations from the bartender, I made my decision.

First dish off the blocks was described on the menu as roasted Orkney sea scallops with Yorkshire ham, egg, and peas. I thought I'd never taste scallops that could rival those of Tom Power at Corduroy, but that day has come. The scallops at Maze were perfectly roasted, still barely cooked in the center, and garnished with rounds of potato cut to mimic the scallop shape, a sunny side up quail egg, pea puree, and a drizzle of a ham reduction. The dish worked well regardless of what combination of its parts you got in each bite -- I know, because I sampled all of the permutations.

Next, I turned to marinated beetroot, Sairass cheese, pine nuts, and Cabernet Sauvignon dressing. Sairass (a sort of ricotta/sheep's milk cheese) and a piece of marinated beet were sandwiched between two paper-thin slices of bright red beet, sprinkled with chopped pine nuts, garnished with microgreens, and drizzled with a Cabernet Sauvignon reduction. This was a flavor explosion -- it was sweet, creamy, and salty all at the same time -- I've had the classic beets and cheese combination a thousand times, and I always love it, but this rendition took it to a higher elevation. I couldn't help but think of my Dad at this point, because he would love this dish (and would love that I love it, since I used to wrinkle my nose in disgust when he ate borscht!)

Now it was time for another beverage selection, and my bartender brought me a glass of Alsatian Gewurztraminer, telling me it would pair well with the foie gras in my next dish. I took a sip before my dish arrived, and it was nice, but oh-so-much-better when I sipped it with ...

Honey and soy roasted quail with Landes foie gras and spiced pear chutney. This was amazing. If I ever return to Maze, I will find it hard to avoid ordering this, even though I want to try other flavors on the menu. This was like a sweet and savory duo of quail, as half of the quail was atop the pear and raisin chutney, and the other half beneath the seared foie, which was topped with a melange of chives, coarse salt, and crushed pepper (all the same size, I might add ... I notice knifework a lot more these days, and chives chopped to the size of coarse salt was a thing of beauty). But this was more than just precision knifework -- the flavors and textures were sublime.

My final savory dish was one from which my bartender tried to steer me, but I didn't listen. And while it was good, it didn't reach the heights of my other choices. I ordered Duart salmon, squid paint, micro squid, Kentish peas, and maple-roasted chicken skin -- I was intrigued by the combination of ingredients, all of which I love. This dish was good, and had I tasted it before the others, it might not have disappointed me. But after the amazing combinations I had already enjoyed, this one just didn't come together. Each part was cooked beautifully, but the combination didn't gel. (I did, of course, love that the peas had been cooked with mint. Fresh peas with fresh mint has got to be one of my favorite things about spring and summer.)

Next up? Dessert! Of course. I briefly entertained the idea of having a cheese plate and then dessert, but knew I probably couldn't make it through both, so I decided on Madagascan vanilla rice pudding, rasperry and lemon thyme jam, mascarpone and pecan ice cream. My choice met with the approval of my bartender, who enthusiastically told me that was "heaven in a dish". Really?

Really.

It's as if this dessert was made for me. A dish of rice pudding, specked with vanilla, topped tableside with a scoop of mascarpone pecan ice cream, a few candied pecans, and a light drizzle of thin caramel sauce. I momentarily wondered where my raspberry and lemon thyme jam was, but when I sunk my spoon to the bottom of the dish I found it, hiding there. I'm pretty sure I have no better words than my bartender's -- "heaven in a dish".

I knew at this point that mignardises were coming (and was unsure how exactly I was going to pop three more morsels into my mouth!), but I didn't know that before that, my bartender would scoot around the bar, pick up my purse, and ask me if I'd like to follow him back into the kitchen to see the inner workings and meet Chef Atherton. Um, of course! So we walked back and into the kitchen, where I saw a well-oiled machine at work. Twenty-five cooks on the line at any one time, with Chef Atherton in the middle, able to see everything at once. As the chef explained to me (while reviewing and okaying each dish as a cook brought it to him, before it went out to service), he redesigned the kitchen, removing all pillars and obstructions, so he would be able to see every part of it from his station. (A nice side effect is that the entire kitchen is viewable from the chef's table, where a lucky group of six was enjoying a meal.) Getting a glimpse behind the scenes, and a chance for a quick chat with the chef, was an exciting benefit to eating at the bar and befriending my bartender!

Back at the bar, I enjoyed my mignardises, a baked Alaska lollipop (pineapple sorbet topped with a lightly browned meringue), a basil-infused chocolate truffle, and a rose Turkish delight. I was full, happy, and ready to return to my hotel.

When I got back to my room, I sent a quick email: "Just had an amazing meal. Amazing." And proceeded to fall asleep, and sleep like a baby, my first good night's sleep in about a week. Absolute relaxation. That, as much as anything else, is the sign of a really good meal, no?

Catching up...

Wow, I am weeks behind on updating you guys on what we've been learning to cook at LCB! I guess Jackie's prediction that I'd be too busy having fun to blog is coming true! So let's catch up...

(I'm not even really in the mood to blog today. Am fighting off a cold and feel a little foggy. But I got an email from a friend asking me to post ... and since she could really use a smile today, I'm writing. Anything to distract her and make her day a little better...)

So, let me tempt you all with the food we've been cooking here in Paris!

A few weeks ago, we manned the grill for the first time. Unfortunately, it was to make grilled salmon. I'm sure it was quite good, as far as grilled salmon goes, but I'm a "the rarer the better" girl when it comes to salmon -- wave it near the heat and onto the plate it goes. So tossing a salmon steak on the grill for a few minutes was sort of like heresy to me. But I did it, and chef even commented on how good my grill marks were! (Yes, dad, they were on the bias...) The fish was served with an emulsified butter/chive sauce (underneath, never on top of, the fish -- show off those gorgeous grill marks!) and spinach.

We also made pommes Byron that day -- shown here with the roasted herb-crusted pork the chef made in demo -- a tasty little well of potatoes filled with bechamel sauce and gruyere, and baked. These were delicious (although I think I'm still a purist and would be just as happy with pommes purees) ... and even better reheated later in the week! In fact, my first dinner guest loved them when I served them that night, along with roast chicken and turned artichokes!

Funny story about the pommes Byron ... their shape is achieved by filling a piping bag with your potato mixture and piping the potatoes into a well (to be filled with bechamel and cheese). I had never used a piping bag before, and was having a bit of a hard time getting any control over where the potatoes were going on my parchment paper! Chef came over, took one look, and asked "gauche, ou doit?" When I told him I was right-handed, he laughed, and switched my piping bag to the correct hand. Sure enough, I got more control over it when I was using my dominant hand! (Melina, you have my permission to laugh and make fun of me...)

By the way, that was a great day in demo, because not only did we get to sample the salmon, spinach, pork, and potatoes, but Chef also made dessert. My sister's favorite (and boy, would she love this recipe ... I know what I'll be making the first time I visit in San Antonio, although maybe Josh can make the ice cream)!


So much more to write, but this is a good start, right? Maybe I'll regale you all with stories from forcemeat week later tonight...